In coal loading apparatus in which mined coal is conveyed on a conveyor for loading onto a ship for example, stacker reclaimers are provided to collect the coal from the conveyor and store the coal for subsequent transfer to the ship. During this process, there is a considerable spillage of coal from the conveyor onto the underlying ground. To collect the spilled material, the conveyor is required to be shut down and machinery or manual labour used to collect the spilled material. Because of the limited area underneath the conveyor, there is currently no suitable machinery which can be used to efficiently collect the spilled material. In addition, shutting down of the conveyor results in a considerable additional cost in handling and loading. To use manual labour to collect the spilled materials is time consuming and labour intensive.
Furthermore, in the case of a major spillage, there can be a considerable build up of coal on the conveyor belt which can cause undesirable heating of the belt. The only effective way to clean the conveyor is to apply a high pressure spray or jet of water onto the conveyor. This procedure wastes considerable volumes of water which is obviously undesirable.